Storkower Singverein

So, I gave you a teaser yesterday about the Chorus I am in. I am really liking it, and it's a pretty laid back group of people. It's just tricky getting used to having to shake everyone's hand at the beginning (all 30 or 40 odd people). The Director has been leading the chorus here for a good 35 years, starting back when it was still East Germany, kept right going through Unification, and still going strong now. Music Director is a universal language. I have already seen every impatient gesture and heard every phrase she's said at any rehearsal, only in English, from every Director I've had. That isn't the hard part. (Especially since everyone is so thrilled that someone is singing with them who has had actual experience. I can't imagine what would happen if someone who had studied music came in the door. They'd never let them leave.)Like any community choir like this there are 2 women for every man, and they do the best they can at trying to be heard over the womens voices. I am probably the youngest there by abou 15 years, and the average age i am guessing is at least 20 or 25 years older than me. maybe more. On trips we take where you have to pay, the make provisions for those who don't have as high incomes: me, as a student, and half the choir, who is in retirement. :) But they're all excited to see me there, and get very worried when they hear things like I'm not going home for christmas. Right now we're preparing for the Sängerball, which is a dinner, a singing concert, and a dance party afterwards. At least, from what I gather. I asked what we should wear, and was told "something chic!" I have no idea what that means, considering where I am living. I mean, i love it here, but chic may just mean something nicer than jeans, a sweater and a vest. And then later someone told me about the fact we have to wear costumes, too. And since our theme is forest and hunting songs, I need to have a forest peasant girl costume...? But all the grandmas are helping out, and I now have a blue velevet head scarf, a shoulder scarf, i said i had a white blouse, and everyone went home to see if they can find me a big colorful flower print skirt. Everyone says that the head scarf really makes me look right... which I am taking as a compliment. But yes, it is an evening full of folk songs and hunting songs. There is one where the audiencec sings along, about how the woodcutter Michel is not doing well, because we can't hear him. So we all sing " Ich old wood michel still singing?" and when the refrain is over, one chorus member from off stage has to start wailing out a song, at which point the choir and audience all start the second refrain "Yes! he's still singing!". Only it's a lot more repetitive than that as you might imagine. A few of the songs are being acted out in front of the audience, and one has been turned into a doo-wop boogie. Or, as much of one as is possible. During that song we all do the twist. It's really something I sort of want a video of, just because of how amazing it all is. THe only problem for me really is that everyone knows these songs. So we sing them once, put them in an order, and call it a rehearsal. I have never heard these songs before, and they use old fashioned dialect german, and i only understand half of what I'm saying anyway! I hope that I can take some time with one of the ladies here who have been the most helpful, and get them to sing through it again with me.

I should go, but be thinking about me around 7 tonight, when I'll be at choir practice, singing about the joys of wood chopping.

Aufenthaltsgenehmigung

OK. So I have been in Storkow now well over a month. And one of the first things I did upon my arrival was plow through the 20 pages of burocratic forms i had to fill out to stay here. One of them being my Aufenthaltsgenehmigung, which allows me to stay here longer than my 3 month tourist allowance. This has to be glued into my passport, and so I had to give up my passport, too. I got a card saying they had recieved my application and everything was normal almost a month to the day ago. And had not heard from them since. I was getting worried about not having my passport and not really knowing where it was, so I asked the school secretary to help me call them, because I'm still not so good on the phone with big words. Anyway, we tracked down the Ausländerbehörde for Landkreis Oder-Spree, and talked with the lady there. First she wanted to know why I had chosen "such an expensive apartment", not that it's any of her business, and then told me that my passport has been there, for me to come pick up, for two weeks. apparently, when it came back, she called one of the three Herr Florschützes, and told him that it was there, which she souldn't have done, she should have called the school, where i mailed it from. anyway, he, whichever one it was, never passed the message on to me. so. So today, now that I am done with classes, I am taking a second fieldtrip to Beeskow. to the Ausländerbehörde. To retrieve my passport. I will try and write soon about the songs we're singing in chorus. One really is the german lumberjack song, like you would hear in Monty Python. Only its the real thing. "The very most fun folk are lumberjack-folk, hi holdrio holdrio... With arms full of strength and hearts full of laughter, hi holdrio holdrio... they pick up their axe and tell themselves they're cutting the legs of the devil in two, the very most fun folk are lumberjack-folk, hi holdrio holdrio." Oh yes. The chorus thinks its so cute that i enjoy the music so much, but i can't stop smiling mostly because of how unreal it all seems. That being said, I am off to get back my most important form of ID here. that has been sitting on someone's desk for two weeks. bye!